Inhabited since Neolithic times but not founded until 1147, Moscow was for much of its early history in thrall to other nations--to the Khans, to the Tartars and the Poles. The city was devastated by fire time and again, but with each rebuilding, miraculously, it grew ever more magnificent. For every church that was destroyed, it seemed that two more were built, compounding the resonance of Holy Russia, with its icons, its chanted liturgy, its packed...